I haven't noticed as much touch-screen usage on my 3DS software-wise. Do you think this will continue? Ready, set, discuss!

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good lord I hope so, the touch screen was WAY overused in a lot of DS games (see: Phantom Hourglass), so much so that a lot of games used it just for the sake of using it even though button controls would be SO much better, let's hope that's a trend that stops soon

The design of the system (smaller lower screen) certainly does mean that touch controls are doomed to less prominence, and that's a shame in a lot of ways.

For one, I always felt that the DS was the only system to get touch controls right, because they used a stylus instead of fingers. Yes, I own an iPad and have played games with that kind of screen; it may allow some nice multi-touch gestures but is otherwise terribly imprecise and awkward compared to a stylus. That's also why all these touch-enabled phones on the market have still yet to create any good games based on drawing: it's just too dang imprecise with the way capacitative touchscreens work (and I've tried the styluses out there for those screens, which are equally terrible and mushy due to how they must be built in order to be detected).

From scribbling numbers in Brain Age sudoku to slashing Link's sword to drawing a living Pac Man to a thousand other cases, touch controls are just so much more fun on the DS systems than on the iOS and Android devices out there. For me, anyhow. And with Sony sticking to capacitative as well, the 3DS is the only game on the market for precise stylus-based touch controls, yet they've unfortunately downplayed that screen. It's a missed opportunity, IMO.

Steel Diver does do an excellent job, though. I love that game despite its detractors, and feel like it has come the closest to combining fun touch controls with the 3D effect on the top screen into one enjoyable experience. I'd like to see more like that.

Most games are too obsessed with 3D visuals to use the bottom screen for any more than menus, maps, etc. which is a shame as games like phantom hourglass/spirit tracks had some of the best control schemes on the DS

We will probably see more games with touch controls like Metroid Prime: Hunters, where you use the bottom touch screen to control the top screen, but a lot less games like the zelda's where the action is on the bottom screen being controlled by the touch screenI do feel like its a real shame, as the 3d isnt really enticing to me anyway, most the time i play with it off so i can relax more instead of needing to keep the console and my head relatively still the whole time i play, as well as reducing eye fatigue and headaches(its not really that bad, but still a noticable difference)

Most games are too obsessed with 3D visuals to use the bottom screen for any more than menus, maps, etc. which is a shame as games like phantom hourglass/spirit tracks had some of the best control schemes on the DS.

Well, it wouldn't make much sense to do a touch screen based control scheme anymore because of the circle pad.

I agree with what people have said. Probably less Phantom Hourglass and Brain Training style controls but more Prime/Kid Icarus stuffs and as many menus as there has always been. It's a shame, I really liked the Zelda controls and the book controls....

and no, Zelda on the DS wasn't controlled like that because the DS lacked analogue control. It was like that as an experiment in control and what we got was a LOT more than simply analogue control. It was also awesome and we probably won't see much of it again.

Probably not because it's no longer the big, new thing. It's just one of the features rather than the defining feature. So it will now be used when appropriate/when needed, rather than used as much as possible just for the sake of it. Which is of course a much more sensible approach.